To print: Click here or Select File and then Print from your browser's menu

This story was printed from silicon.com, located at http://www.silicon.com/

Story URL: http://www.silicon.com/retailandleisure/0,3800011842,39163024,00.htm

Editor's Blog: Tesco PR, BPO and the AOP
And a word on that Dispatches programme...

By Tony Hallett

Published: Thursday 05 October 2006

Where to begin? I woke up slightly foggy-headed this morning (more on that later) to watch a BBC Breakfast bit which featured the good guys at Which? magazine, a disgruntled consumer and Declan Curry talking about self-service checkout lanes at Tesco.

A few customers of the supermarket - which in addition to record results and an attempt to take on Microsoft in desktop software for the home this week, really hit the jackpot when silicon.com's publisher, CNET Networks UK, awarded CIO of the Year to Phil Clarke last week - have apparently been hit by some fraudsters using stolen or cloned cards of theirs at these checkouts.

I take Tesco's point that these instances are few and far between, though anyone affected should be treated well by the retailer and their card issuers, I would hope.

But Tesco's statement on the subject surely failed PR 101, including with the line: "We're sorry that Which? has chosen to cause our customers unnecessary anxiety." Are we really supposed to think Which? has done something wrong here?

I have plans tonight, among other things preventing me attending an eagerly awaited charity quiz night, which means I will miss the Channel 4 Dispatches programme that supposedly reveals how personal data has been sold on, in offshore BPO locations.

Our resident expert on this subject made the point yesterday in an interview with a newspaper that such activity can happen anywhere, so let's not pretend any particular location is without its faults - though on the flip side let's prosecute the hell out of anyone found guilty of wrongdoing, wherever they are.

I predict a lot of reaction to the programme - well, I know it will happen. And I hope it's balanced.

And finally, last night I was at the UK Association of Online Publishers annual awards, where silicon.com was up for three gongs. We won… precisely… none of them.

And that foggy head? Clearly not from winner's champagne on this occasion. I've had a cold and left relatively early, high on some sort of flu relief powder.

The night saw the good and great of UK publishing gather in one room, with some top entertainment from comedian Jimmy Carr. (Special mention too for the lunchtime presentation during the AOP conference on Wednesday, from Ulrik Haagerup, editor-in-chief of Nordjyske Medier in Denmark - a name to look out for.)

But by the end of last night I couldn't help think of that Gary Lineker quote. My version would be something like: 'It's a game of 90 minutes, played by 22 men and at the end of the day The Guardian always wins.'

Best of luck to them. And generally there was a real shift evident, with plenty of other old media companies now making the transition to online successfully, though not painlessly, I know. Roll on the next 12 months.